Starlight, Star bright, Give Kids The World tonight - October 2018 Day 1 - Universal

[PrincessCastle]

Index

13th October - Day 1.

I forgot to mention yesterday the gifts the children got on arrival. Oliver got a Mickey Mouse cuddly and Ariana got a Yoshi the dinosaur cuddly, which they swapped! There was an autograph book on the table (which we didn’t use cause we’d brought our own) a goody bag for Oliver from Mayor Clayton (the rabbit who runs the joint) with sweets, some snap bands, a toy car and other bits and bobs in. And a Jar Of Joy which was a plastic jar full of little gifts like wind up toys, rubbers etc. Oliver also got a GKTW badge to wear in the parks so he could be identified as a wish kid. Gifts would be left in the villa every day which was amazing!

Anyway, back to today!

I woke up at 4:30. I tried to get back to sleep but it was no good. I whatsapped in my friends group chat and played games etc then got up at 5:30. I quietly showered and did my make up in the bathroom then woke Ross and the kids up at 6:30.

They looked a bit dazed and confused for a few seconds, then remembered where they were and bounded out of bed. Since we didn’t have our magic bands yet the plan for today for universal. I know we didn’t need the magic bands since we had the card tickets but I wanted the kids to use them cause I’m weird like that!
The kids had cereal and milk in the villa, Oliver had his medication and then got dressed and ready. I did Ariana’s hair in two French plaits since I had been practicing and could do it in double speed now. I figured it was the best hair style to keep her sweaty hair out of her face. And it would get sweaty cause she is an exceptionally sweaty child!

I packed spare clothes as we planned on doing the wet rides. I told Ross to put his swimming trunks on now and I’d pack a pair of short for him to wear after. Problem was, he couldn’t get the shorts past his thighs! I told him to try them on in the shop but he never listens! We’d have to have another trip to Walmart as some point for some more.

We managed to get out the door at 7:35, taking a photo by our villa sign on the way out. This would become a little tradition we’d call the ‘morning photo’.

I ordered an Uber while we walked to the village entrance. The uber cost about $17. This seemed to be fairly standard for our Universal trips. Disney was usually $23 ish. We may switch to Lyft next time as all the drivers said it was cheaper.

I hadn’t realised how far away we were from the parks. We’re used to staying on site at Universal and we stayed on site at Disney last time so we didn’t really like being so far away to be honest but it’s not something I want to complain too much about since I was just so grateful to be there.

We drove through the gates at 8:05. The kids loved the sight of the volcano in Volcano Bay. Had to tell them we wouldn’t be visiting this time but maybe next time since we would have longer.
As we pulled up into the car park/guest drop off area Ariana saw that the sign posts all had stars on the top of them and she declared it the most beautiful place she’d ever seen. She’s easily pleased is Ariana and sees beauty in everything which is so lovely, and hilarious as the same time.

I remembered Frank telling us yesterday that this morning would be a chilly one. Maybe for a native! It was already very warm.
We headed up in the lift, through the xray machines and onto the walkway. We didn’t use the travelator since we had the wheelchair which ticked the kids off as apparently it looked fun. I’m telling you, so easily pleased! There was lots of HHN poster up on the walkways, made my heart sad! I told the Oliver we couldn’t go because of him and asked him why he ruins everything. He just laughed at me and said ‘sucks to be you!’ Charming!

Walking through City Walk was amazing. The kids were in awe of everything and Ross and I agreed that we had missed this place.
At the entrance to Universal Studios I swapped the ticket confirmation sheet for actual tickets and put on our guest assistance lanyard then joined the queue to get in the gates. We only waited about 5 mintues and were through at 8:30. The lady that scanned our tickets was lovely, she wrote our names on them so we knew which ones had been assigned as child tickets and which were adults for the fingerprints. I then went straight into the photoconnect shop and swapped our voucher for an actual photo card then went out to have some pics taken by the entance.

Normal face please!

Better

Then it was time for the fun to begin! We started the walk round to ‘London’ spotting lots of HHN props on the way, including lots of Stranger Things ones. I bet that house is amazing! We pointed out all the rides we’d be going on like the minions ride and transformers, the kids were very excited!

Once we were in London Oliver was soon pointing out familiar sights he’d seen when he visited London in the summer. ‘Yep Oliver, looks exactly the same!’ We went over to meet Stan and the shrunken head. Stan liked Oliver’s batman cap. The shrunken head said the only cap he’d ever gotten is de-cap-etated. Hahaha. I told him the joke had gone right over the kid’s heads, he replied ‘yea and right under mine!’ how funny!

I told the kids that I’d spotted a gap in the wall behind us, how curious! We went over to investigate. The kids were gobsmacked (Ariana literally was, and had her hand over her mouth the whole way up the Alley) and also scared of the dragon on the roof. They ask me a lot if things are real and I never like to say yes or no, I always ask them what they believe and tell them they are allowed to believe whatever they want so if they think it’s real then great, if they don’t, that’s fine but keep it to yourself so you don’t spoil it for anyone who does believe.

Once we arrived at Gringotts, I put our bags in a locker and we went to the entrance. Unsure what I was supposed to do I just flashed the guest assistance pass (I’ll call it a GA Pass from now on) and the lady asked us if we wanted to be escorted to the front of if we wanted to see the bank. We wanted the latter as I think the kids would like to see it, so we were sent down the express pass line and told to take the wheelchair all the way to the end.
The kids loved the banking hall. They asked if the goblins were real, this time I told them they were which they thought were amazing! They’ve told everybody since we’ve been back that they saw real goblins. Oliver is a natural born worrier and was asking all sorts like is it a rollercoaster? Does it go fast? Does it go upside down? Then he saw the clip of the ride that they show before you go into the lift and said that it looks quite slow...I chose not to comment! After the ride lift we were sent up another, less magical lift and round the corner to the side of the loading bay. The CM asked if we would like to sit up front...yes please! We left the wheelchair at the side, grabbed our safety goggles and boarded. The first ride of the holiday is always so exciting!

It was a huge hit with the kids, Ariana was a little bit scared of the dragon ‘oh Mummy, I thought it was going to kill me!’, no darling, it was Voldemort who wanted to kill you, not the dragon. But she said she ‘was so glad Hermione saved us’. She’s such a feminist, I love her. I quietly muttered under my breath that it wasn’t Hermione cause Emma Watson is a big abandoner. Still ticks me off!

The kids were in the magical spirit of things and decided they wanted wands. I said you want Olivanders, aint no place better! While waiting inside for the ‘show’, the CM was having a lengthy discussion about the different kinds of mermaids in the wizarding world, she then brought up Ariel and started chatting about her and how she and her sisters represent the seven seas, I was sure she was breaking some kind of rule there!
We were allowed to enter the show shop first. A little bit of me hoped they would spot Oliver with his GKTW badge and choose him but they chose a girl in her late teens wearing Gryffindor robes. Gutted! In the actual shop I directed the kids to the cabinet of interactive wands. Ariana chose the one with the gold tip of the handle. Oliver, at first insisted on the one with the skeleton and snake on but I said no cause I hated it and cause I’m an awful mother. I’m sure that’s what Oliver thought anyways, hence the meltdown which ensued! After he calmed down and we reasoned with him, he chose the ash wand. He said it was Harry Potter’s wand, he was happy so I wasn’t going to correct him. The total cost was $110.76.

It was almost 10am now and Ross and I were starving. We headed into the Leaky Cauldron for some breakfast.
Ross and I ordered an American breakfast each and we got the kids a childs one to share since they’d already eaten. Ross had a coffee, I ordered two apple juices for Ariana and me. Oliver asked for an orange juice but wanted to know if it had bits in, it did so I said to him I’d get him an apple juice too, apparently he didn’t hear me. Total cost was $52.89. When we sat down with the drinks, waiting for the food Oliver asked for his orange juice. I reminded him of the conversation we’d just had all of 30 seconds ago, which he didn’t recall. Queue meltdown number two, he really wanted orange juice. Once the food came, I asked for another plate to share the children’s out. Oliver had a sausage and the croissant, Ariana had the pancakes and a sausage.

The food was lovely. You could tell by the look on Ariana’s face. She was as happy as Larry! I couldn’t stop looking at her, it’s just what I hoped they’d look like in my happy place. Oliver on the other hand looked like he’d been so wronged. Still wolfed his food down though. We are well used to Oliver’s meltdowns. They’re all part and parcel of his condition. It puts him on the autism spectrum and he can’t handle upset or change. Where most people would just shrug and get on with it, Oliver can’t handle it and gets extremely upset. Most of the time it’s just best to let him stew and get over it in his own time, carry on as normal, he soon snaps out of it!

One thing I remember from breakfast is Ariana telling me that she’d decided she wasn’t going to tell anybody that she was a princess, she was going to keep it a secret! She’s hilarious. We’ve called her princess her entire life so now she actually thinks she is one. She truly believes that she’s going to marry Prince George and live happily ever after in London. And who am I to stamp on her dream? She got referred to as princess a lot over the holiday from CMs and she couldn’t understand how they knew about her. I just had to say it was the magic of Florida!

The lady who cleared our table tried to cheer Oliver up but didn’t manage it, instead she offered to take a family photo by the cauldron. That forced Oliver to put a smile on his face at least!

After a quick bathroom break we decided to head over to the other park via the Hogwarts Express. With the GA pass we were able to go in the exit lane and up a lift. At the top the CM let us go through to see the wall effect then back to her and right out onto the platform, not going to lie, it did take away from the magic a little bit and Oliver got upset when we didn’t get to go through the +wall. I tried to explain that when you walk through it’s just a normal walkway and nothing magical but he was still upset, I told him we’d do it properly next time which cheered him up. Unfortunately we never did get the chance but he didn’t notice.
We were straight on the next train and got a carridge to ourselves. The kids loved the ride. The dementors freaked them out a bit but again, Harry was there to save the day again!

At the other end Ross took the wheelchair down the lift and I took the kids down the front to get a picture with the train.
When we met back up again in Hogsmede we walked straight through and towards Jurassic Park. We got some pictures taken on the way. Then Ross got asked if he’d take a photo of a family, which he did, then almost dropped their phone! He blamed sweaty palms, he’s just a butter fingers!

In Jurassic Park, Oliver was in his element. He’d been desperate to get here for years. They show a clip of the ride on the Jurassic World DVD saying something like ‘you’ve seen the film, now dare to ride’ or something and Oliver always shouts ‘I dare!’

First thing we did was find the raptor encounter. We joined the queue but when a CM saw us she sent us out of the queue and to the exit where we were met by another CM. They were just waiting for a raptor to come then they let us in. The raptor we met was Blue which is amazing because she’s Oliver’s favourite. The meet was amazing, Ariana was terrified and it didn’t help when Blue roared in her face, she then went round the back and got Oliver, then me, then Ross. The CM who took my phone to take pictures got some great ones. I think that Oliver’s dream came true with that meet, I loved the big smile on his face, especially when Blue was scaring Ariana!

It was 11am now and time for Oliver to dare to ride! He was so excited. I flashed the GA pass and we were taken around the side and right onto the loading platform. The CM asked if we had a seat preference, front please! The folks sitting behind us were lovely. One guy was from Wales but was living in Canada with his Canadian wife and Daughter. His daughter was with him but she wouldn’t go on any rides so he had to go solo on everything which seemed like a massive waste of money to me! He was giving Ross hints and tips for his time in Florida, I didn’t have the heart to tell him we knew everything he was telling us and more!

Ariana was enjoying the ride, until we started going the wrong way, then she got a bit nervous. One thing Ross and I found fun about bringing the kids for the first time was that we could play along with the ride ‘story lines’ we were like ‘omg what’s going on? This never happened when we rode it before!’ scared Ariana to death cause we’re mean! By the time we were going up the big slope inside she had buried her head in the lap bar and did not look up until we got to the bottom. I could hear Oliver shouting for her to look up and see the t-rex but there was just no way. When we got to the bottom and the boat stopped she burst into tears! We just laughed. We all got splashed but I got soaked! Ross calls it payback for 2012 when he got soaked and I was bone dry, must be something to do with sitting on the left of the boat.

We asked Oliver if he wanted anything in the shop but there was nothing he fancied. Ariana piped up that she wanted something but I said no, she’s not into dinosaurs and I wasn’t buying something for the sake of buying. We did spot Oliver’s gyrosphere toy that we picked up in Walmart for $65 which just shows the crazy theme park price ups!

Continued...

[PrincessCastle]

Next on the list was King Kong. We’d watched the film a few weeks ago and Oliver enjoyed it. He asked me if Kong was bad, I told him no, he was just misunderstood. God I regret telling him that as he never stops going on about King Kong, the misunderstood gorilla. Telling everyone he meets ‘do you know King Kong, he’s misunderstood’ it’s so funny but so annoying after the first 5 times!

We were escorted up the exit path and were straight onto the next truck. I don’t know how put Oliver and Ariana went on the truck first so were at the edge, such a hilarious mistake. I had my arm round Ariana, who had her head buried into me, and I was holding Oliver’s hand with my right hand and Ariana’s hand with my left. Oliver was squeezing my hand the whole way round and jumping everything something came out or hit the truck. There were also some very high pitched screams that came from him. Me and Ross laughed the whole way round, I told you, we are mean parents!

Oliver claims he wasn’t scared at all and he loved every second of it. I’ll take his word for it!

Oliver’s legs were getting tired now so he had a break and sat in his chair for a bit but then wouldn’t have any photos taken. So when we were walking through Toon Lagoon he wouldn’t play ball. Ariana was happy to though. We stopped and watched Rip Saw Falls for a bit, I was gutted the kids weren’t tall enough for this as I love that ride! Ariana kept jumping backwards everytime the water splashed up towards the bridge even though it never reached her.

We were heading towards the Spiderman ride when we saw Captain America doing a meet. He was top of the list of characters we wanted to meet. I’d put Cap America shield vinyls on Oliver’s wheelchair the week before and we wanted to show them off to the man himself. We only waited a few minutes to see him.
He absolutely loved the wheels. He kept saying to the photoconnect guy how awesome they were so I genuinely think he liked them. He also liked Ariana’s hair clip.
If you didn’t see in the pre trip, I’d bought Ariana a butt load of hair clips that were styled like all the Disney princesses, plus Captain America. They were a huge hit all holiday!
Oliver told him that Ross and I had watched Avengers of the plane over here, he pretended to be very impressed. There was high 5s and fist bumps all round. It was a great first meet of the holiday, one of many!

Onto the Spiderman ride, we were sent in the EP lane but we still had to queue. Ross and I have been on this ride so many times over the years and it’s always been a walk on. Having to queue did mean we spotted little things we’d never seen before. Like a photo of Stan Lee in one of the make shift offices and Stan Lee’s name on one of the filing cabinets. He appears quite a lot in this ride as we spotted him twice on the actual ride as well. It’s great that you can come here so many times but you’ll always spot something new.
This ride was a massive hit with the kids. Oliver especially. He bought a posable Spiderman cuddly in the shop for $18.06.

We went round to the photoconnect counter to get the ride pic put on the card. The lady in the queue behind us said she liked my Harry Potter tattoo. She’s the first person in all my times at Universal that has ever noticed it! She asked what the dates on it are and if they were the kid’s date of births but I said they were actually the date Ross and I got together and the date we got engaged. I’m yet to get our wedding date put on it, I must get round to that!
During that conversation I noticed something out of the corner of my eye, I turned round and saw the Green Goblin with his nose pressed up against the window. He disappeared from the window but soon popped up again over the road, he was creeping about and jump scaring people, how funny!

We headed out of the Marvel section and towards Seuss Landing. In the Port of Entry section Ross bought a HHN refillable cup and a frozen lemonade slush which was $21.82 in total. The frozen lemonade was a bit meh, didn’t really have much flavour which was disappointing since I’d heard such good things.

It was 12:30 by the time we got to Seuss Landing. The kids wanted to go on the Cat in the Hat ride but we needed to finish the lemonade first so we had a wander. Round the corner we came across one of the story telling things, I think she was reading Green Eggs and Ham. The Grinch, the Cat and Sam were stood with the story teller and Things 1 and 2 were sat on the floor listening. Nobody was sat with them so I told Ariana to go sit with Thing 2, which she did. He gave her a cuddle and it was the cutest thing!

When the story was over, Thing 2 gave her a big kiss then went to do a dance with the others. Then story teller announced that the characters would be doing meet and greets now and to follow your favourite. We planned on following Thing 1 and 2 since we were dressed for a photo with them but we didn’t need to. Thing 1 came over, grabbed Oliver’s hand and took him with him! A queue had already formed for them by the time we got there and I told the kids we had to wait in line but Thing 1 wouldn’t have that and took us straight up with them for the first photo.

The Cat bowed out for the first few photos, letting the things have some together but then came in for the last ones. I absolutely love these pics. We are the coolest family ever. Fact.
We then rode the cat in the hat ride. I rode it in 2002, Ross had never ridden it. It’s a cute little ride, the kids loved it anyways. In the shop, Ariana bought a Thing 2 cuddly for $23.38.
We rode the sky trolley next, that was a great little ride. The best part was exiting into the sweet shop! We didn’t buy anything but man that place smells good!
Sam (Sam Greens Eggs and Ham) was stood alone, Ariana felt sorry for him so gave him a cuddle and showed off her new Thing 2 toy.

We headed out of Seuss Landing and through the Lost Continent where Ross refilled the cup and Oliver spotted Puss in Boots. Oliver is a huge fan so darted over for a cuddle and a picture. The photoconnect guy noticed my iphone didn’t have a case on it and told me I was brave. I showed him the state of my screen and told him it’s way beyond that now! It’s actually worse now after I dropped it in the airport on the way home, I have big chunks of screen missing now. I’m due an upgrade soon so it’s all good!

At 1:15 we were back in Hogsmede. Oliver was in a one cause he was hangry. We were going for lunch soon but every available snack was offered to him, non of which he wanted so he had to stay hangry.
Ariana got a photo with the conductor. We chatted to him for a bit about being English in America. Everyone thinking you’re from London or that you know someone in the royal family. I have no idea if he was really English and just enjoying a chat with some fellow Englishmen or if he was totally in character, if he was he was an excellent actor.
Ariana and I headed into the girls bathroom for a chat with Myrtle. It was a bit too loud in there though and I couldn’t hear her very well which was a shame. I’m sure she was moaning about something though.

Oliver wanted to go on the ‘bird rollercoaster’ he saw this morning. We presumed he meant the Flight of the Hippogriff ride. We were sent in the EP lane and had a 10 minute wait for the ride. It was baking hot by now and there wasn’t much shade in that queue! The kids spotted Hagrid’s hut which made them happy.
They loved the ride. It’s a bit short for my liking but quite rapid and throws you about a bit. Big hit with the kids though.

We wanted the kids to see inside Hogwarts even if they were too small for the ride, so we decided to walk through the castle. We could have done child swap but we didn’t want to ride anything without the kids as that wouldn’t be fair on them. They liked seeing Dumbledore’s office the best. Once at the end we were sent back down it a lift. The sign on the buttons was really cute.

In Filch’s Emporium I spotted some absolutely adorable Christmas decorations! Little Yule Ball robes for Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fleur and Viktor. I’d have bought them all but at $21.95 each I couldn’t afford them all so I settled on Hermione (because I’ve always dreamed of owning that dress) and Viktor (because they were together at the Yule Ball so it only seemed right!) although I kind of wish I’d got Ron’s but never mind!
Ariana and I wandered round the rest of the shop but Ross and Oliver had already spotted something. Back in September Ross and I spent the two days we had in London trawling all the shops we knew stocked Noble Collection items looking for Slughorn’s Hourglass as I’ve been dying to get me hands on it but everywhere was sold out and they were struggling to get it back in stock. But here it was, in Filch’s Emporium! So Ross nabbed it for me as my Christmas present cause he’s amazing! It was $170.40. It’s £135 over here so no mark up at all which is great, maybe Noble don’t allow them to. Sods law is that it is now back in stock over here and you can order it online. Oh well! At least I can say that mine came from Hogwarts itself! Ross had the hourglass sent to the front of the park for collection later. This would be a mistake!

It was now 2:15 and definitely time for food! We headed out of the park and to Margaritaville which is a firm favourite in our house. We love Jimmy Buffet! We were seated straight away and ordered drinks. Ariana had some kind of children’s mocktail in a flashing cup, Oliver had a diet coke, Ross had a beer and we both ordered the classic marg which was called Whose To Blame, excellent! The margs were $11 each so not cheap but so worth it!

Instead of colouring sheets for the kids they had these wikkistix which were sticky rope things that you could use to make pictures of sculptures or anything you wanted really! I thought they were great. We made a pair of glasses, a spider, a stick man, they were great to pass the time and a nice change to wax crayons!

For food, I ordered the starter nachos with guacamole, Ross ordered off the starter menu too and had a portion of the traditional buffalo chicken wings and the buffalo boneless chicken bites. Ariana had the chicken strips with fries and Oliver thought about having a cheeseburger in paradise cause it’s his favourite song but opted for the fish and chips.

All the food was divine! I love guacamole and would eat it with a spoon but the tortilla chips were also nice and surprisingly, so were the banana skin chips that came with it!

Ross decided that he didn’t like his marg so that was a waste of $11. In total the bill was $95.99 and we left $18 tip in cash.

I’m not sure why but we’d never actually been in a Margaritaville gift shop before but that changed today! The first thing I saw when I walked in was the most glorious clock I’d ever seen. It was grotesque and tacky and I had to have it! Ross tried to buy some swim shorts but at $70 it was a big fat no. He’d have to go to Walmart! I also picked up a fridge magnet (I’m a collector, I think they are great souvenirs since they are usually so cheap and every time I go to my fridge I smile at all the memories!), some amazing salt and pepper shakers (such an amazing yet obvious idea!) and Ross got a golf ball (he collects those). While we were waiting to be served our server from the restaurant came to find us and gave us a $10 off voucher which was very welcome! The total was $68.08 including the $10 off.

We decided to leave it for the day and go back to the village to play in the pool so headed back to the park entrance to collect the hourglass. I got out the receipt and noticed on the bottom it said it would be available to collect after 3 hours. We bought it at 2 and it was only 3:45 now. Poop. We checked anyways just in case but it wasn’t there. So Ross went to refill the cup and I wandered round the clothes shop at Port of Entry. It sold lots of boho style clothes with elephants and dream catchers on, right up my street. I loved everything but nothing in particular jumped out at me so I left it. I did spot some bright pink flamingo swim shorts that I pointed out to Ross when he came back but it was a firm no, not sure why!

We looked in the Christmas shop and all the other gift shops in that area but nothing was purchased. I did take a few merch pics just for you though, enjoy!

We went back to the package collection bit at 4:20. They went to have a look in the back for us. While we were waiting we were chatting to a CM who loved Oliver’s wheels. We told her we’d met Captain America today and he was a big fan of them too. She asked if we got him to sign them. Erm...no but oh my god why not?! I decided that we must purchase a sharpie of some description from Walmart later and meet him again when we came back. The hourglass wasn’t there yet so we thanked the CM for the great idea and headed out again.

This time we decided to wander to the Hard Rock Cafe shop to have a look and probably grab me a pin. The kids had had enough by now and were knackered, the heat didn’t help, it was sweltering! We walked past the Toothsome Emporium and said we’d get milkshakes tomorrow (spoiler alert-we never did!) then reached the Hard Rock shop. Ross liked the Halloween tshirts and the golf tshirts but decided to leave it. I had a mooch at all the pins and decided to get a Halloween one as they had 2018 on. The kids helped me choose and we settled on this one which was $12.78.

I snapped a pic of the kids in front of the globe then we wandered back to IOA, praying that the hourglass was there now! We saw lots of people heading to Universal for the HHN which made me sad, and jealous! Lucky people!

Thankfully the hourglass was finally there so we grabbed it and headed out of city walk. On the walk through I noticed some Dragon Ball Z merch on one of the stands and pointed it out to Ross who is a big fan and he bought a POP of Goku for $20.24.

We then went to the guest drop off area and ordered an Uber which arrived fairly quickly. Unfortunately though, it was rush hour. Lots of people heading home and even more people arriving for HHN, so it took a while to walk down the queue of cars to find ours. It would help a lot if American cars had licence plates on the front!
We arrived back at GKTW at 6. The original plan was to head to Walmart for some swim shorts but since it was so late now we decided to get the kids in their swim stuff and head straight to the pool, we could just paddle today.

The kids had a great time! Oliver loves swimming. He does lessons once a week as it’s great exercise for him and he can now swim without armbands. Ariana, on the other hand, is terrified of water if it goes past her waist so she stayed in the shallow end with Ross and paddled. I set myself up on a lounger and wrote up some notes. I loved that it was still warm enough to swim at 7, although the pool was heated in the evening but only a smidge.
After an hours fun we headed back to the villa go get dried and changed for tea.

Oliver wanted to see his star in the Castle of Miracles as Stellar the Star Fairy should have placed it by now so we had a quick pit stop. I gave the volunteer the card we were given yesterday with the star ID on it and she directed us through a door in the entrance hall. She pulled back a curtain and revealed another room of stars. This one wasn’t full yet but it was well on it’s way. We found Oliver’s star in the Jericho section. He was chuffed to see it up there. We also noticed we were being watched by somebody...

On the way out we signed the guest book. Oliver wrote ‘the Bennett family’, I did a little heart, Ariana drew a flower and a star and Ross wrote ‘2018’ so we all put our little mark on it.
The kids went to see Mr Buttons again but he was sleeping so we left him to it and headed towards the Towne Hall for tea.
In the entrance hall there were some craft tables set up with volunteers, including Jim from the pizzeria yesterday, making foam sea creatures. Ariana wanted to have a go, much to Oliver’s disapproval as he just wanted to eat! Ross took him into the dinner hall while Ariana and I make a lovely pink crab! When we were nearly finished Ross and Oliver came back. Oliver told us he’d just met Mayor Clayton so was excited about that. The volunteers asked if he wanted to make something but he just wanted to go look at the fish tank, so Ross made one instead while I went over to the fish tank with Oliver where there was another table set up. This one was being manned by a company called Scraps of Love. They are a non profit organisation who make scrap books for wish children after their wish trips. I was something I was certainly interested in so we swapped details and they said they’d be in touch in a few weeks time.

By now Ross had finished his foam shark so we all headed in for dinner just before 8 which is lucky as they stop serving at 8!
This time Ariana had pizza and sweetcorn, Oliver had pizza, Ross had chicken, meatloaf and mash and I got a burger, fries, corn on the cob and beans.
Now I’m not sure how it happened but during dinner Ariana initiated a dance of between her and some of the volunteers. Unfortunately I didn’t film it, or get photos cause I’m useless but it was the sweetest thing ever. We then found out that one of the volunteers was also called Ariana. She loved that she’d found someone with the same name, and the same spelling! She said usually they have a double ‘n’. I told her that she was named after Ariana Dumbledore and she freaked out, she thought it was amazing.

After all that excitement it was time for ice cream! Ariana had a tub of strawberry and chocolate and Ross had a tub of mint choc chip. Oliver and I didn’t fancy one.
Oliver did want to go to the games arcade though, so the boys went there and I took Ariana to the spa to get her nails done. It was almost 9 and everything shuts at 9 but they were still happy to fit her in. She chose her colour (pink, obviously) and they painted them for her, then put them in the dryer. She was so chuffed with them! They also did hair and make up. There was a gym too for anybody who didn’t think walking round the parks was enough exercise!

We went to find the boys in the arcade, they’d had lots of fun. Obviously everything is free so no tokens necessary, unlimited play!
We left the arcade just after 9 and headed back to the villa which was literally across the road. But as we walked past the little rides that are across from our villa also, we saw there were still volunteers around so the kids asked for a ride on the train. It’s such a cute little track past the arcade and round the mini golf and back again. The kids sat up front and were tasked with ringing the bell every time the volunteers sounded the whistle, a job Ariana took very seriously!
Now it was 9:15 and really was time for bed! The kids were straight to sleep and I wasn’t far behind them! That was until the phone rang again at 9:50! They really have to stop doing that!
It was the same lady I spoke to last night. She asked if we had received the magic bands, I said we hadn’t. She promised they would be delivered to the villa tomorrow. I thanked her and went straight back to sleep.

[Bootrip2]

Sounds a lovely day at universal,looks like you got loads done. X

[Cinderella]

What a great day! Those volunteers are wonderful 🙏

[mick]

That was a lovely day


Joan

[bigshaz]

Loving reading along, you had so much fun, wonderful

[Goldia]

What a busy day, you got on loads of rides and it sounds like you had great fun.

[Milner]

Fantastic day

[collybird]

I love your photo connect pictures from the morning, you can tell how happy you all were to be there.

[16offtodisney!]

What an amazing day xx